Mumsnet book club: January book of the month, Elizabeth is Missing by Emma Healey. Join the discussion and put your questions to author Emma Healey on Wednesday 28 January, 9-10pm.

[TillyBookClub]

Our January choice is a debut novel that comes with a whole heap of accolades: ELIZABETH IS MISSING is currently shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award 2014, and was shortlisted for the National Book Awards Popular Fiction Book of the Year 2014 and for the National Book Awards New Writer of the Year 2014. It also comes with high praise from previous Mumsnet web chatters Emma Donoghue and Jonathan Coe, among other fans. The book is narrated by Maud, who suffers from dementia, but knows that something has happened to her friend Elizabeth. Clues and mysteries are interwoven with her childhood memories, as Maud's confused mind jumps between past and present. It is a gripping suspense story, as well as a compassionate portrait of a 'missing' woman's struggle to find the truth.

You can find out more at our www.mumsnet.com/books/bookclub/2015/elizabeth-is-missing-emma-healey, or at Emmas's own website.

If you weren't lucky enough to bag one of the free books we have given away, you can always get a copy here.

We are delighted that Emma will be joining us on Wednesday 28 January, 9-10pm to discuss Elizabeth Is Missing, her tips on writing plus much more. Please feel free to discuss the book here throughout the month (avoiding spoilers if possible) and then come and meet Emma on the night, and ask her a question or simply tell her what you thought of the book.

Look forward to seeing you here on the 28th.

@atrociouscook

I notice that you dedicated it to your two grandmothers and wondered if either of them had dementia and whether that is where you were able to get such insight into the condition? I am guessing you had a very close relationship with one or other, or both of them because Katy was so well depicted also and also your references to things which happened in the war - I can imagine you sitting on their knee whilst they regaled you with tales of their privations - is that right? I look forward to the sequel!

Both grandmothers inspired the book in different ways. Nancy Rowand is my father’s mother, she has multi infarct dementia, and was the trigger for the book (I've mentioned that below). Vera Healey was my mother’s mother and she didn’t have dementia, but gave me the inspiration for much of the past story. She was an excellent story teller and although I only used one or two of her actual stories in the book (e.g. she really was chased by a madwoman who hit her with an umbrella as she ran across a road), it was her detailed explanations and evocations that gave me the confidence to depict another time. She got very ill and was dying at just the time I was thinking of beginning to write EIM and on my way to see her in hospital (a two hour train journey) I decided to write down everything I could remember her telling me. Then over the next few days we went over them again, partly because I wanted to make sure I had everything correct, and partly because I wanted to prove to her that I’d been listening to her all those years, and that her stories had meant something to me.

I am really enjoying reading your posts Emma!

Did you always know it was Frank? (Do we definitely know it's Frank?) Or were you thinking it could perhaps have been Douglas while you were writing the book?

Maybe it was Douglas framing Frank?! I never thought of that

@SucksFake

My question refers to the end of the book, just wanted to warn anyone who hasn't read it, in case of spoilers!

My interpretation of Maud repeatedly asking about how to plant marrows, and of how drawn she was to Elizabeth's house, was that at some level she was suspicious of Frank; did you mean that to be the case?

Yes, I think there was something about Frank she found compelling, but she was also deeply suspicious of him deep down. Because of her confused feelings for him, her confused feelings in general due to her age and her sister’s sudden disappearance, she was able to ignore them or deliberately mistake them. I don’t think she thought directly enough about it until the moment she found the compact in Elizabeth’s garden, and by then it was already nearly too late.

@gailforce1

Can I ask which authors you enjoy reading now and which authors influenced you in the past?

I love Hilary Mantel, Michael Frayn, Maggie O’Farrell, Ali Smith and Emma Donaghue. They do something so clever with ordinary life, and they are all funny and sinister and beautiful by turns.
I was also hugely influenced by the gothic writer Ann Radcliffe as a teenager, and by Graham Greene and Patrick Hamilton. All are good at mystery and showing the darkness of human beings beneath the surface.

Hi Emma,
Didn't realise you had already joined us when I posted my question above. Just want to congratulate you again for winning of the Costa First Novel Award and for being voted in the Top 3 in the year's best novels by Guardian readers. But more importantly, well done for putting together a humdinger of a first novel.

There was recurring trend throughout this book. It seemed that Maud's father was the only really decent male character within the story. He values honesty (even if, ironically, he never actually refuses Frank's ill-gotten food gifts), despises bad language and profanity, isn't said to ever miss work (as a postman) as he supports his family, and later spends day after day searching for his missing daughter (as a devoted father would). In contrast, all the other male characters have major questions marks surrounding their character. Douglas leaves his mentally ill mother to fend for herself while he moves away into comfortable lodgings. Frank, despite helping many people with transporting their belongings during the aftermath of the war, is a foul-mouthed alcoholic arrested for rations fraud (and that is even before any suspected murder). Elizabeth's son, Peter, appears to have in own interests at heart more that the care of his mother. We had the male serial killer. We had Maud's son Tom who is happy to leave his amnesia-afflicted mother to his sister's care while he lives in another country with his own family. Even the male police officer was quick to make fun of Maud rather than be a little more sympathetic of her condition.

Was this incidental, or did you actually intend for this to be the case?

@Penquin

if I like your book - which I do, a lot - can you tell me any other authors, past or current, or any other specific books that you think I'll also like?

That’s a hard one! Have you ever read Barbara Pym? I love her books, and No Fond Return of Love has a kind of farcical investigation in it.
Books that I’ve heard other people compare EIM to include:
Mark Haddon’s Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time
Emma Donaghue’s Room
SJ Watson’s Before I Go to Sleep

Hope that’s helpful. (And so glad you like the book!)

Emma, I have another question about your writing process. Did you let your family read parts of the book whilst in progress or did you keep it back until it was complete?

Penquin you might also like Etta and Otto and Russell and James by Emma Hooper

Also can I ask another question if i may?
What is the significance of Maud`s childhood illness?

Thanks Emma, I will definitely look for No Fond Return of Love - I have a book token I want to use wisely.

You might have seen my earlier post about watching the Curious Incident and thinking of your book.

@MrsRedWhite214

Was it difficult to represent Maud's confused mind whilst still making it readable and engaging? You did a very good job (despite some horrible criticism)

That was definitely the biggest challenge - so glad you think it worked! Structure played a huge part. I was meticulous with my research and kept a list of dementia symptoms to refer to, but I also tried to come in to each scene a little late in order to avoid too much repetition which could have been irritating. So for instance, you know that Maud has asked a question several times because Helen is annoyed and mentions it, but the reader has joined that scene after most of the repeated questions and only reads the last few. Does that make sense?

Just popping along to say congratulations on your award and for an excellent, moving book - fantastic insights and perspectives.

I had lots of questions which people have already asked, really enjoying your answers

Have just caught up with reading all the posts and finding all the questions and Emma's answers fascinating and thought-provoking. Emma- I love what you have told us so far about the story behind the book, insights into how it has been shaped and influenced through your personal experiences and all the research you have done. I think that story behind the book would make a great story in itself!

Another question if that's ok..How does it feel to be thrown into the spotlight for your first novel?
Another question if that's ok..How does it feel to be thrown into the spotlight for your first novel?

@SomethingFunny

I also loved the way the story jumped around between the past and the present. Was that difficult to write? Did you have the past and the present storylines worked out separately first?

I don't tend to write chronologically, so the jumping around came quite naturally to me, however it did require a detailed plan, and the deeper I got into the book, the more detailed it became! (It was colour-coded and the past scenes were in italics, I had a timeline which cross-referenced with it too.)
I didn't have everything worked out, though I wrote the last scene very early on, and I mostly let the present inspire the past and vice versa as that is kind of how memory works anyway - it felt more real to me that way, and I could enjoy weaving things in as I went.

P.S. Thank you for all the kind words!

Obviously wanted to ask that question so much I put it twice. Oops! ??

I'm interested in what you said about finding Maud's voice and finally being able to commit to the project, having written (and presumably rejected?) other things. Did the UEA Creative Writing course help you feel your way towards that voice? What would you say was the biggest effect of doing the course?

I enjoyed the book but I found it quite upsetting at times - my nan is elderly and whilst does not have dementia, many of the scenes described felt close to home.
My question is - did you likewise have moments of feeling upset as you wrote the book?

barricade you have put your question a lot better than I put mine - I too was struck by the 'femaleness' in the novel and lack of strong, present males.

Yes I have been impressed by Emma's answers, getting an idea of the thought, planning, research, organisation and time that has gone into creating Elizabeth is Missing.

@Penquin

I thought Helens character was really well portrayed. she seemed like a strong, compassionate woman who loved her mother but understandably got exasperated by the situation a lot of times. I thought it was wonderful that she did so much to try and help Maud and gave her a place to stay, while still seeming very human throughout it all. She seemed to be a single parent in the book?

When you were writing did you know much about the 'absent' characters in the book? Did you have a kind of 'back story' to Katy's dad, and the family situation there? Was it a conscious decision to have the main 'family' as three generations of solo females? (I know Tom is in the story but only fleeting visits)

I'm really glad you liked Helen. She was one of the characters I was most fond of. I had originally put in more about Helen's situation (she has had an on-again, off-again marriage with Katy's dad for years which Maud has given up trying to keep track of), but to include all that would need another perspective's besides Maud's and didn't sit right with the rest of the story.

Yes, I knew a lot about Elizabeth's life for instance (her parents, her husband, her life before meeting Maud) which was there in my head for me, but which I knew would never be in the book.

You're right - there are a lot of women and not many men (and those who are there are all a bit suspicious! I really do like men though, I promise!). I grew up just living with my mum, and staying with my grandmother, so it's partly autobiographical in a way. But I was also conscious of keeping characters to a minimum to avoid confusion.

Thanks mrsredwhite

Hi Emma,

I am so pleased to have happened upon your book! I am studying at the moment and it is so difficult to fit in reading around my course material, however I devoured your book in just a day!
You have a wonderful writing style, which to me, was reminiscent of Margaret Atwood, and indeed, Maud reminded me a little of the protagonist (Iris) in The Blind Assassin. Atwood, too, fills her novels with strong female characters.
Your writing inspires me to write! Did you study the novel-writing process, or did it just come naturally to you? I would love to write but find the process difficult, and my methods too unscripted!

p.s. I Capture the Castle is so beautiful! It makes my heart ache in a wistful way.